What's in a Name?
by notsing
Summary: Hermione shares the true story behind her name with her husband and has a startling revelation. This is my first Harry Potter story and I don't own him, but if JKR would like to give me Ron I'd be ecstatic.


What's in a Name? A lot.

"It's from Shakespeare."

That's what her parents always said, and Hermione never had cause to question it. Someone would comment on her unusual name, and the automatic response was "It's from Shakespeare's 'A Winter's Tale'".

That would usually bring a blank look, and maybe a verbal response somewhere along the line of, "Oh, I'm not familiar with that one."

"No," her parents would reply. "it's not one of his more famous plays. Still, it's Shakespeare." And it was indeed Shakespeare, and who would dare question the bard?

She read the play of course, it was obligatory. It wasn't bad, but the geography mistakes disturbed her. The part about the statue coming alive also bothered her, and would bother her even more at the end of her second year at Hogwarts.

It wasn't until the last year of her regular muggle schooling, and before she knew she was a witch, that Hermione found out the true story behind her name.

She had discovered the periodic table, and realized, to her delight, that one of the chemical elements had her initials, Hg. So naturally, she had to read all about mercury. There was a lot to read.

It was often called quicksilver as well as mercury. The 'silver' came from the metallic sheen, and the 'quick' wasn't because it moved quickly (although it did), but because it moved at all. Because it moved on it's own the early alchemists thought it was alive, and 'quick' means alive.

Alchemist were, of course, hoping to find the fabled 'philosopher's stone', and thought they were close when mercury was discovered.

It was only recently that people realized it was poisonous; people used to believe it had healing powers and toys were made with it.

But it was when Hermione read that it was commonly used in dentistry that she really got excited. She just HAD to share with her parents the news that her initials were the same as an element they often worked with. But when she did, Hermione caught her parents smirking at each other and realized the truth, "On purpose! You gave me the initials Hg on purpose!"

"You're too clever by half," laughed her mother.

"Should we tell her the rest?" asked Dad.

"There's more?" questioned Hermione.

"Yes, and we can tell you, or you can figure it out on your own, sort like a puzzle," offered Mum.

Hermione knew she was clever, and she liked puzzles, "My own. I'll figure it out on my own. I'm sure I can."

"I'm sure you can too," agreed Mum.

So Hermione diligently read everything she could about mercury, and though there were loads of interesting facts, she could find no clues.

Then she realized that mercury wasn't just the name of an element, there was also a planet named Mercury! So she read up on the planet, and though she was always happy to learn new facts, discovering that Mercury was closest to the Sun and it's year was only 88 earth days didn't solve the riddle.

It was when Hermione was examining a star chart, and noting the planets in order, Mercury, Venus, and Mars, and thinking how they were named after the Roman gods that the pieces finally fell into place.

"It's Hermes!" she triumphantly announced to her parents. "Hermes is the Greek name for the Roman god Mercury, and Hermione is the feminine form of Hermes. Not only do my initials stand for mercury, my name is also mercury!"

"Very good!" Dad approved. "I knew you could figure it out!"

Of course Hermione found all this was fascinating and thought her parents were very clever to have thought this all out. Quietly, she was proud to be the daughter of two such intelligent people. Naturally, Hermione longed to share the secret behind her name with her friends. If she just had any, friends that is. Unfortunately, she really didn't.

Still, she TRIED to tell a few of the children at school about it. It was so interesting she was sure someone would think it enthralling. No one did. The nicer children looked at her blankly and asked, "What's a periodic table?" or "Who the heck is Hermes?"

The not-so-nice children openly smirked, rolled their eyes, and said "Who cares?" or "So what?"

Hermione began to appreciate why her parents simply said, "It's from Shakespeare."

She decided to emulate them and share the true story of her name only with her nearest and dearest. No one was more nearer and dearer than her new husband. Of course, they had been best friends for years, and she could have told him before now, but Hermione hadn't thought of it.

But shortly after their wedding, and still very much under the glamour of it all, they were snuggling on a lazy day off and telling each other stories that one didn't tell anyone else.

So Hermione described to Ron how she had stumbled onto her initials being the same as mercury's in the periodic table, and how her parents had challenged her to figure out a riddle about her name, and how excited she was when she succeeded. Then she held her breath, afraid his blue eyes would be glazed over in boredom.

But Ron was sitting up, staring and gaping at her, "Are you serious? You're actually named after this...this mercury, that's a poison, a planet, a god, and," he swallowed hard, "was important in the philosopher's stone?"

Hermione nodded, "I know. Strange, isn't it? I mean, since, well, we actually had a hand in recovering the philosopher's stone. It, kind of makes you wonder."

"Especially when you add in the creep factor of that bloody play," muttered Ron.

Hermione started, "Play? You mean 'A Winter's Tale'? You've read it?"

"Always the tone of surprise," mocked Ron.

Her hand fluttered to his face, gently caressed it, "No, I just didn't know you knew Shakespeare. I'm never sure how much the wizarding world is acquainted with him."

"We're not that ignorant!" protested Ron. "Anyway, you said your name came from him. So I looked for it."

"You read 'A Winter's Tale' just for me?"

"Of course I did! When I read about that statue coming to life after you had," Ron hesitated.

"Been petrified," Hermione filled in for him.

"Yeah, that," agreed Ron. "It made me feel strange. Like, it was meant to be or something, you know what I mean?"

"Yes, I've been pondering the same thing myself."

"But you say this mercury is really a poison?"

"People didn't used to know that," Hermione told him. "They even made toys out of it. My parents played with it, and they've said it was fun. Like little drops of liquid silver darting about all over the place. They used to chase it, or trap it in tiny mazes they made."

"That sounds wicked! Can you still get it?" asked Ron.

"It's a poison silly!"

"But you said kids played with it for ages," argued her husband. "It can't be that dangerous, or people would have been bound to notice their kids popping off dead after playing with it. Where do you get it anyway?"

Hermione laughed, "It's not really that hard to make. Mostly you need heat and cinn," Hermione stumbled to a stop, staring at Ron's bright red hair.

Her normally organized brain spun wildly, thoughts swirling and colliding against each other. Ron's comments about 'it was meant to be' smashing into the facts about mercury she had memorized so long ago.

Destiny, fate, and mercury's overwhelming desire to bond with sulfur that made it so deadly to all carbon-based beings. Her strange, immediate attraction to this fiery boy with his bright red hair the minute she saw him trying to change his rat yellow.

Was it all predetermined? It almost seemed that way, everything fell into place so neatly.

"HERMIONE!"

Hermione came back to the present with a start to find Ron staring at her with worried eyes.

"Are you alright?" questioned Ron, " you kind of, what's that muggle term, zouped out on me."

Hermione giggled, "You mean zoned out. And I'm fine. Anyway, what were we talking about?"

"You were telling me how to get mercury, you said we needed sin," Ron raised an eyebrow, " I might be able to help there. What kind of sin do you need, exactly?"

Hermione shook her head, "Not SIN. Sorry, I got distracted. You need cinnabar."

"Alright, what's cinnabar?" asked Ron patiently.

Hermione's eyes strayed to Ron's hair again. She swallowed, "It's a mineral ore that's always, well," deep breath, "it's always RED."

_While mercury is not really hard to make, no one should. It's extremely dangerous._

_I knew after reading the first Harry Potter book what the basic outline of the rest of the series was going to be, and I knew which boy Hermione was going to end up with. It's all basic alchemy and chemistry. And no, I'm neither an alchemist (do they even exist any more?) nor a chemist. _

_I have a Bs. in English, and I know my classical literature (you would be amazed how much alchemy is in literature)._

_Alchemist believed there was gold in a lump of lead, and if you knew the right way to do it, you could remove the baser, 'leaden' elements, and be left with solid gold._

_A lot of 19th century writers thought you could do the same with people. _

_The Harry Potter books follow a formula set by Charles Dickens in stripping Harry of his baser elements and making him 'golden'. _

_Sulfur and mercury were two key elements used by alchemists. Ron is the sulfur and Hermione the mercury. Harry needs both of them to complete his transformation. That's alchemy._

_As to who Hermione would wind up, that's chemistry. Mercury ADORES sulfur, and will ALWAYS attempt to bond with it. _


End file.
